(CNN) – The white stretch Lincoln was headed across San Francisco Bay, carrying the bride-to-be and eight of her friends for a bachelorette party.
Five of them, including the bride, never made it across.
Somewhere on the seven-mile San Mateo-Hayward bridge, the limousine caught fire. The driver and four members of the bachelorette party got out, but the bride — identified by a relative as 31-year-old Neriza Fojas — and four others died in the burning limo Saturday night, the California Highway Patrol said.
“The flames were gigantic,” said Roxanne Guzman, who was crossing the bridge with her husband and brother about 10 p.m. Saturday (1 a.m. Sunday ET). “The flames were so big and radiating so much heat that I could feel the heat off of my face, and I was in my car the entire time.”
Guzman said the survivors appeared to be in a state of shock on the shoulder of the roadway, with three of them crying. Other passersby had stopped, but police and firefighters hadn’t arrived yet, she said.
The driver was uninjured, but the four surviving women were treated for smoke inhalation, California Highway Patrol spokesman Ron Simmons said Sunday. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
“Looking at the photos, it appears it started in the trunk,” Simmons said. “But at this time, we don’t know officially if the fire started inside the vehicle or on the exterior.”
Lovela Nicolas, the sister-in-law of Fojas’ sister, said Fojas was a registered nurse. The Fresno woman was slated to be married in June, and she and her friends had hired the Lincoln for her bachelorette party, Nicolas said.
“Neriza was getting married, going to Philippines to get married there and have ceremony there and the reception,” Nicolas told CNN from her home in Honolulu.
The mother of one of the surviving women told CNN affiliate KTVU that her daughter, Mary Guardiano, was upset but physically OK.
“She’s very sad. She is crying,” said Rosita Guardiano.
In a written statement, the limousine company said it was “deeply saddened” by the deaths.
“LimoStop Inc. will do everything possible to investigate and assist authorities in determining the cause of this fire in order to help bring forth answers and provide closure to the victims and their families,” it said.
Medical examiners may need up to two days to identify the remains, San Mateo County Deputy Coroner Roger Fielding said.
CNN’s Jackie Castillo, Nick Valencia, Jake Carpenter and Justin Lear contributed to this report.
A limousine traveling on a major bridge in the San Francisco area burst into flames, killing five female passengers who were trapped inside and injuring four others who escaped, authorities said.
Five occupants became trapped, while the four others suffered injuries but managed to get out after the vehicle came to a stop on the bridge, the patrol said. The driver escaped uninjured.
Montiel said that the victims were all in their 30s. Authorities said the names of the dead would be released once families have been notified.
The blaze occurred around 10 p.m. PDT on westbound lanes of the bridge, which connects San Mateo and Alemada counties, about 20 miles southeast of San Francisco.
The patrol said that smoke started coming out of the rear of the limo, and the driver pulled over as the vehicle quickly became engulfed in flames. Officers were trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which wasn’t the result of an accident.
“We have no idea right now where they were going or where they were coming from,” CHP officer Amelia Jack told KGO-TV.
Two of the four women who escaped were taken to Stanford Hospital and two others were taken to Valley Medical Center in San Jose. All four are being treated for smoke inhalation and burns. The driver was not injured.
The westbound lanes of the bridge were closed as officers investigated the cause of the deadly fire, but the patrol said one lane of traffic reopened early Sunday.
Saturday, April 20th was the first day of National Park Week – an annual tradition celebrating, enjoying and giving back to our country’s great natural and cultural landscapes. For the next five days, parks across the country will waive their entrance fees to provide free access to thousands of miles of trails and coastlines, as well as battlefields, archeological sites and waterways. With spring now in full swing, National Park Week is a great opportunityto dust off your bicycle or sneakers, grab some healthy snacks and a water bottle and get moving outside.
If you don’t have a national park in your city or town, chances are the National Park Service has played a role in increasing access to outdoor recreational opportunities in your community. Through the Land & Water Conservation Fund, the National Park Service has funded recreational facilities, such as playgrounds and trails, in 99 percent of counties across America.
Take advantage of mild temperatures and loads of free activities and plan a national park experience with your family this week.
If you are interested in:
Recreation -Find a national park near you and pick your adventure – hit the trails with your family and seek out free, ranger-guided tours and activities.
Education - Encourage your kids to explore and learn about their natural and cultural heritage. Throughout the week, many parks will offer free programming for National Junior Ranger Day. In certain parks, the Let’s Move Outside! Junior Ranger program boosts activity levels and promotes healthy lifestyles.
History & Culture - National Park Week provides an opportunity to appreciate the landmarks, monuments and historical landscapes that define our national identity. Take this chance to discover the sites in your city or state.
Young Scientists and Innovators Amaze President Obama at the White House Science Fair
Becky Fried
April 22, 2013
President Barack Obama talks with Evan Jackson, 10, Alec Jackson, 8, and Caleb Robinson, 8, from McDonough, Ga., while looking at exhibits at the White House Science Fair in the State Dining Room, April 22, 2013. The sports-loving grade-schoolers created a new product concept to keep athletes cool and helps players maintain safe body temperatures on the field. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
As the President said in 2009, when he announced the first-ever White House Science Fair, “If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you’re a young person and you’ve produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too.”
That’s why young inventors of everything from portable windmills to oil-producing algae, and from underwater robots to dehydration-preventing football gear were invited to share their wares at all corners of the White House — from the South Lawn to the State Dining Room — for today’s event. The cohort of kids included app-coders, rocket-builders, video-game designers, and city-planners—many of them, as the President pointed out, not yet old enough to drive. One team of innovators even helped the President hop onto a bike and test out their pedal-powered water filtration system.
We’ve got to do everything we can to make sure that we are giving these young people opportunity to pursue their studies and discover new ways of doing things. And we’ve got to make sure that we’re also leaving behind a world that is safer and cleaner and healthier than the one we found. That’s our obligation.
The steps announced today include the launch, this year, of a new AmeriCorps track focused on STEM Education; the launch, by ten leading education non-profits and U.S.. technology companies, of US2020—a campaign encourage companies to commit 20 percent of their STEM employees to 20 hours per year of mentoring or teaching by the year 2020; and an announcement of more than 1,000 summer learning events planned as part of the upcoming Summer of Making and Connecting program supported by the MacArthur Foundation; among others.
President Obama thanked parents, teachers, and mentors in the audience for their continuing roles in supporting students’ spirits of curiosity, creativity, and imagination. And, after repeatedly marveling at some of the amazing innovations represented at this year’s Science Fair (including a pancreatic cancer screening tool that is cheaper and more accurate than any on the market) — the President spoke to the students directly, saying simply, “we could not be prouder of all of you.”
Earth Day is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Earth Day is observed on April 22 each year. The April 22 date was designated as International Mother Earth Day by a consensus resolution adopted by the United Nations in 2009. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 192 countries every year.
The name and concept of Earth Day was pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. He proposed March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later a separate Earth Day was founded by United States SenatorGaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this April 22 Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.
Wednesday, April 22, 1970 chosen as Earth Day
The genesis of Earth Day is credited to Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin. After witnessing the ravages of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, and inspired by the student anti-war movement, he called for an environmentalteach-in, later called “Earth Day”, to be held on Wednesday, April 22, 1970. More than 20 million people participated that year, and now Earth Day is observed on April 22 each year by more than one billion people and many national governments in 192 countries. Earth Day appears on calendars around the world.
Nelson, an environmental and conservationist activist, hoped to demonstrate popular political support for an environmental agenda. He modeled it on the highly effective Vietnam War teach-ins of the time.
Nelson had conceived the idea for his environmental teach-in following a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after the horrific oil spill off the coast in 1969. Outraged by the devastation and Washington political inertia, Nelson proposed a national teach-in on the environment to be observed by every university campus in the U.S.
The April 22, 1970, Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Approximately 20 million Americans participated. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps,pesticides, Freeway and expressway revolts, the loss of wilderness, and air pollution suddenly realized they shared common values.
Media coverage of the first April 22 Earth Day included a One-Hour Prime-time CBS News Special Report called “Earth Day: A Question of Survival”, with correspondents reporting from a dozen major cities across the country, and narrated by Walter Cronkite.
Pete Seeger was a keynote speaker and performer at the event held in Washington, D.C. Paul Newman and Ali MacGraw attended the event held in Manhattan.
Significance of April 22
Nelson chose the date in order to maximize participation on college campuses for what he conceived as an “environmental teach-in”. He determined the week of April 19–25 was the best bet as it did not fall during exams or spring breaks. Moreover, it did not conflict with religious holidays such as Easter or Passover, and was late enough in spring to have decent weather. More students were likely to be in class, and there would be less competition with other mid-week events—so he chose Wednesday, April 22.
Unbeknownst to Nelson, April 22, 1970, was coincidentally the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin. Time reported that some suspected the date was not a coincidence, but a clue that the event was “a Communist trick”, and quoted a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution as saying, “subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them.” J. Edgar Hoover, director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, may have found the Lenin connection intriguing; it was alleged the FBI conducted surveillance at the 1970 demonstrations.
The idea that the date was chosen to celebrate Lenin’s centenary still persists in some quarters, an idea borne out by the similarity with the subbotnik instituted by Lenin in 1920 as days on which people would have to do community service, which typically consisted in removing rubbish from public property and collecting recyclable material. Subbotniks were also imposed on other countries within the compass of Soviet power, including Eastern Europe, and at the height of its power the Soviet Union established a nation-wide subbotnik to be celebrated on Lenin’s birthday, April 22, which had been proclaimed a national holiday celebrating communism by Nikita Khrushchev in 1955.
Earth Day anthem
There are many songs that are performed on Earth Day, that generally fall into two categories. Popular songs by contemporary artists not specific to Earth Day that are under copyright or new lyrics adapted to children’s songs. Creating new lyrics that are easily translated into multiple languages, and set to a universally recognized melody in the public domain, does not appear to have been attempted.
The “Earth Day Anthem” below satisfies these requirements for a universal song associated with Earth Day. Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” melody is already the official anthem of the European Union (in that case purely instrumental without lyrics), the melody is widely recognized and easily performed, in the public domain, and originally composed for voice. Lyrics for the Earth Day Anthem set to “Ode to Joy” are provided below:
The Best Earth Day Song / Anthem
Joyful joyful we adore our Earth in all its wonderment
Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Earth Day Song
The Face of Climate Change
Climate change can seem like a remote problem for our leaders, but the fact is that it’s already impacting real people, animals, and beloved places. These Faces of Climate Change are multiplying every day. Fortunately, other Faces of Climate Change are multiplying too: those stepping up to do something about it. Help us personalize the massive challenge climate change presents by taking a photo and telling your story. How has climate change impacted you? What are you doing to be part of the solution?
Every year on April 22, more than one billion people take part in Earth Day. Across the globe, individuals, communities, organizations, and governments acknowledge the amazing planet we call home and take action to protect it.
Published on Mar 15, 2013
The theme of Earth Day 2013 is The Face of Climate Change. This campaign seeks to harness the power of Earth Day to personalize the massive challenge that climate change presents, while uniting people around the globe into a powerful call to action. Earth Day Network is collecting images of people, animals, and places affected by climate change as well as images of people doing their part in the fight against climate change.
On and around Earth Day (April 22), an interactive digital display of all the images will be shown at thousands of events around the world — from schools to parks to government buildings. The display will also be made available online to anyone who wants to view or show it.
Learn more and upload your photos at earthday.org/2013.
Earth Day 2013: The Face of Climate Change
Climate change has many faces.
A man in the Maldives worried about relocating his family as sea levels rise, a farmer in Kansas struggling to make ends meet as prolonged drought ravages the crops, a fisherman on the Niger River whose nets often come up empty, a child in New Jersey who lost her home to a super-storm, a woman in Bangladesh who can’t get fresh water due to more frequent flooding and cyclones…
And they’re not only human faces.
They’re the polar bear in the melting arctic, the tiger in India’s threatened mangrove forests, the right whale in plankton-poor parts of the warming North Atlantic, the orangutan in Indonesian forests segmented by more frequent bushfires and droughts…
These faces of climate change are multiplying every day.
For many, climate change can often seem remote and hazy – a vague and complex problem far off in the distance that our grandchildren may have to solve. But that’s only because they’re still fortunate enough to be insulated from its mounting consequences. Climate change has very real effects on people, animals, and the ecosystems and natural resources on which we all depend. Left unchecked, they’ll spread like wildfire.
Luckily, other faces of climate change are also multiplying every day.
Every person who does his or her part to fix the problem is also a Face of Climate Change: the entrepreneurs who see opportunity in creating the new green economy, the activists who organize community action and awareness campaigns, the engineers who design the clean technology of the future, the public servants who fight for climate change laws and for mitigation efforts, the ordinary people who commit to living sustainably…
On April 22, 2013, more than one billion people around the world will take part in the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day. From Beijing to Cairo, Melbourne to London, Rio to Johannesburg, New Delhi to New York, communities everywhere will voice their concerns for the planet, and take action to protect it. We’ll harness that power to show the world The Face of Climate Change. And we’ll call on our leaders to act boldly together, as we have, in this pivotal year.
Between now and Earth Day, we’ll collect and display images of people, animals, and places directly affected or threatened by climate change – as well as images of people stepping up to do something about it. We’ll tell the world their stories. But we need your help. We need you to be climate reporters. So, send us your pictures and stories that show The Face of Climate Change.
On and around Earth Day, an interactive digital display of all the images will be shown at thousands of events around the world, including next to federal government buildings in countries that produce the most carbon pollution. The display will also be made available online to anyone who wants to view or show it.
Together, we’ll highlight the solutions and showcase the collective power of individuals taking action across the world. In doing so, we hope to inspire our leaders to act and inspire ourselves to redouble our efforts in the fight against climate change.
The school is renowned for it’s quality education. While visiting with students, parents, and administrators, Obama gave a speech where he praised the value of early education. This is all common-sense stuff except to those pushing starve-the-beast austerity type measures that hurt the underprivileged and disenfranchised.
The highlight of the trip, though, was the right reaching an all time low… by shouting racial epithets outside of an elementary school!
It’s apparent to everyone by now that the so-called Tea Party will protest anything that Obama supports. Education for young child? Protest! So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that a sizable crowd formed in protest. The signs featured are the usual hodge-podge of illiteracy and ignorance. However, what happened at the end of the engagement is what should really turn your stomach.
As Obama was prepared to leave, the protesters, riled up by a speaker with a megaphone, began to shout epithets at our Commander-in-Chief.
Never mind that there were children there, being exposed to the hate, bigotry and ignorance that the American right has to offer. The administrators scrambled to shoo the children away, though undoubtedly some had heard the hurtful words that they were shouting.
I have a couple of sources at the engagement and I am working to get more information. To my knowledge, no one was arrested, though several people were trespassed off of the property. As I hear from the school coordinator and a friend who attended the event, I will update this diary with more information.
Thank you Mr. Nathaniel Patterson (cause leader), for this information.
Makes you wonder what type of nation we live in where the citizens disrespect the leader of said nation because he has a skin tone darker than their own.
Makes me wonder even more, why the main (lame) street (sewer) media (jokes of journalism) didn’t have this story lead it’s evening newscast?
Amazing to me that caucasian racist trash, can fix their mouths, full of broken teeth and chewing tobacco, to yell nigger at the man who makes it possible for them to live in their trailers, get computers from Rent-A-Center, and enjoy a dinner of Possum Stew every other Tuesday.
I want Barack Hussein Obama & Joseph Robinette “Joe“ Biden, Jr as MY POTUS & VPOTUS. I want men/women representing me and MY America who can relate to me and MY America.
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If we ever needed to vote & vote DEMOCRATIC, we sure do need to vote DEMOCRATIC now. For us (Black America) the right to vote is not just a Constitutional matter but a right borne out of struggle, out of sacrifice and in some cases out of death. Think for a moment where we are in time and you will understand why: ”If we never ever needed to vote DEMOCRATIC, we sure do need to vote DEMOCRATIC NOW!!”
Jueseppi B.
